Category: Poker Strategy

Given the popularity of poker and the amount of money that can be won when playing the game, it is understandable that many people are looking for ways to improve their skills and increase their likelihood of winning. There is no denying that luck and good fortune plays a part in the success of poker players but there is a lot a player can do to influence the outcome of a poker hand. Although there is no one perfect poker strategy, many poker players have ways to play which provides them with an increased likelihood of winning.

When you are focusing on developing a poker strategy, it is important to think about yourself and your personality. There are some poker strategies that are based upon being aggressive and going for the kill quite a lot. If this is against your natural instincts, you may struggle to follow through with this strategy consistently. It can be difficult to go against your natural tendencies so it may be best to focus on a poker strategy that suits with your mood and playing style.

Two of the main poker strategies are aggressive play and passive play. The aggressive side of poker play generally focuses on betting and then raising. The passive side of poker play is more commonly associated with checking and then calling. Of the two, in the long term, the aggressive style of play is seen to be the more worthwhile because it puts your opponents on the back foot. This increases the likelihood that they’ll make mistakes, placing you in a position where you can take advantage of their mistakes. This is an important way of playing for many people as many poker games are decided by players making mistakes as opposed to brilliant poker play.

Passive play can have benefits

Passive play can be of benefit when it is used deceptively and if you a passive person, you’ll find that this style of behaviour works best for you. No matter what poke strategy you are looking for, you’ll find that it is of benefit to develop these skills. This means that you need to play as much poker as you can.

There are plenty of great poker sites to play on but if you want to develop a strategy, the Anonymous Poker website is a very good choice. This site allows players to play anonymously, which means that they can hone their skills and style without fear of their style of play being recognised. Players can have their confidence knocked very quickly, which is why playing on this style of site can help you to develop a long term playing style.

A large part of poker strategy also revolves around managing your bankroll properly and knowing when to get out. It is better to play a smaller number of hands and win on a regular basis than to play a lot of hands and win a smaller proportion. This is a sure fire way of running out of money before too long. Whatever poker strategy you decide to develop, ensure an element of bankroll management is in place.

Say you’re sitting on a poker table. The game is no limit hold-em, you’ve been dealt your hole cards, seen the flop, the turn, now the river comes out, and you’re only too happy to see you’ve got the nuts! Well you can’t just sit there, you have to capitalize on this. The key to being successful in poker is to maximize your winnings while minimizing your losses. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing free poker or real money poker, you should be playing to win.

You’ve got the nuts, you know for a fact you can’t be beat, at worst you’ll split the pot, you have to place a value bet. The only question is – how much do you bet? If you bet too much, the whole table may fold. If you don’t bet enough, you may not get as much as you could have for the hand. So how much do you bet? Well, the answer to that question is not so simple. The situation is different with every hand. You have to consider how many people are in the pot already and how they’ve been playing the hand up to this point.

For example, if you’re sitting on a full table with five people in the pot, (including yourself) but everybody has been limping all the way to the river, any large bet is likely to fold the whole table. In this situation, you are probably best off betting the minimum bet. At least one or two of the people in the pot will likely have a small pair that they just didn’t feel comfortable betting with. They will likely think you are in the same situation as they are and not be willing to lay down a small hand so easily. If you’re lucky, everybody in the pot will call. Unfortunately, in this situation, even with a monster hand, this is probably the most you can hope to gain from it.

On the other hand, if it’s down to you and one other player, and your opponent has been betting aggressively down every street, value betting right off the bat MIGHT be the best move you can make. This depends on the situation also. If you have just made your hand on the river, a nut flush or straight, it will probably be pretty obvious if you’ve been check/calling the whole way and then suddenly come out value betting on the river. Any savvy poker player is going to catch on to this and cut their losses… if they believe you. In this situation, a check/raise is called for. Or, if your opponent has bet first, come over the top with a raise, say about 50% higher than your opponents bet. The check/raise will at very least gain you your opponent’s river bet, and if they’re foolish enough to call, or re-raise, gain you even more. If they bet first, and you raise them 50%, you will leave some question in their mind as to whether you are bluffing or not.

They know you have seen the possibility of the nut flush, (or straight) fall on the river because they saw it too. So they may very well think you are trying to buy the pot and either re-raise you, or smooth call. If they’re an aggressive player, chances are they will push all in to show you they think you are bluffing, in which case, you just doubled your stack. If they’re not such an aggressive player, but have been betting somewhat aggressively down every street, you may want to raise a little more than 50% of their bet if you expect a smooth call, but pushing all in will only scare them off.

The key to value betting is knowing your opponent well enough to be able to make an informed decision on just how much you can get out of them in any situation.